Children of the Mirror
by The First Sight
Summary: A story of the search for a forgotten truth. I advise reading the first page to decide if you want to read it.
1. Introduction

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_**Children of the Mirror**_

Dark and Krad have been sealed within the Black Wings.  
They remember nothing of this. They remember nothing of the world they came from.

This is who they are now. This is all they know.

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	2. Chapter 1

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...1st Part: Dark...

Another pointless day of school.

A kid walked by my table on the way to the lunch line and I snagged a few bills from his pocket, getting away with it unnoticed. I smirked, laughing under my breath. If there was one thing I was good at, it was stealing – and getting girls. That worked out pretty well for me, too. As hinted by the one sitting on the table in front of me: Tsuki, my latest girlfriend.

I handed her the money I'd snatched and waited for another oblivious student to walk by. She folded it up and stuffed it into the black fingerless gloves that reached up to her elbows. Running her fingers back through her inky hair, she informed me, "Your turn, Dark. Truth or dare?"

We were kind of an odd bunch, the eight of us. Not quite rejects – we were all fairly intelligent – just a bunch of irritated kids who found this kind of thing a waste of our time. I suppose we could be called rebels, if we needed a label. In our little gang, there were Tsuki and I, and six others. There were only two girls, total.

"Dare," I said.

Had any normal bunch of kids been playing this game, it might've been extremely boring, but we weren't exactly normal. We could think of the most revealing truths and outrageous dares that anyone would never be able to think of – well, we could on a good day.

The loud, obnoxious ring of the bell sounded, signaling the end of lunch. Tsuki groaned and rolled her eyes at it, sliding off the table to her feet. She kissed me briefly before walking off to her class. "I'll tell you your dare after school," she called over her shoulder. I stood where I was for a moment, listening as the clinking of the chains hanging from the waist of her miniskirt faded off down the hall, and then headed grudgingly up a flight of stairs to my own class.

. . .

"Your dare, Dark," Tsuki began, a smug little grin on your face, "is to kiss Krad."

"_What_!?" This may have sounded like a relatively common dare, kissing someone, but it wasn't. Everyone on the entire school knew who Krad was: a queer loner kid who had an impossibly cold stare and on the rare occasion he had to use his voice, it sent a shiver down one's spine that said something to the effect of, 'Get the hell away if you value your life.' He may look sissy with that long blond hair of his, but he could kick some serious ass when he had to. No one would give even their enemy a dare like that. "No way am I doing that! Think of something else."

Tsuki shook her head. "What? Is the great Phantom Thief afraid?"

"No!" I protested. I wasn't scared, but kissing the weirdest guy on Earth – kissing any guy, really – was definitely not on my to-do list. And I did not appreciate her using my self-proclaimed title against me.

"Come on, Dark," Tsuki insisted. "You a man or a mouse?"

I think my eye twitched a bit as I glared at her. "Fine," I gave in, reluctantly. "But you owe me big time, Tsuki."

She only continued to smirk at me as I turned and walked off to find the object of my unpleasant dare.

Every day, Krad would sit under one of the trees at the front of the school's property, watching motionlessly as people went by – which was really creepy; you could feel his eyes on you – or just read some book. No one knew why he didn't just go home like the rest of us.

I walked up to his usual spot, leaning against the trunk of the big maple with my arm extended and one foot crossed over the other casually.

Almost instantly, he asked, "What do you want?" He turned the page in his book. "You're Dark, I presume. The one they call 'Phantom Thief'?"

"Uh, yeah." I threw a glance back at Tsuki. She was still watching me, gesturing with her hand to say 'Get on with it, already'. I quirked my mouth at her to tell her to lay off; I was working on it.

"Come to make fun of me?" Krad interrupted our silent exchange. "Attempt to cut my hair off or beat me?" he continued guessing. "There are really no original ideas out there anymore."

Another page-turn.

"What are you reading?" I asked. I didn't really care, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Nothing you would know of, I'm sure." Krad pulled a bookmark out of his shirt pocket and slipped it between the pages before closing it and looking down at the novel's cover. "Shakespeare." He looked up at me, then, the corners of the usually neutral line of his lips turned down in a frown.

I removed my arm from the tree, standing over him with my thumbs hooked into the belt-loops of my dark jeans. All I had to do was bend over...

"Now what did you _really_ come over here for?" he asked, his unnatural gold eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Just do it and have it over with, I told myself. I quickly moved my hand under his jaw so his head wouldn't move, and knelt down on one knee to press my lips – upside-down – against his.

Yeah, I kissed him.

An odd shudder wriggled its way down my spine and I felt Krad's hands pushing at my face and prying at my hand, trying to get me off of him. Then he opened his mouth, which freaked me out. His head tipped back and a sharp pain shot through my face. I tore away from him, covering my mouth with my hand, but not before blood dripped onto Krad's face. He fell back against the grass and I ran.

Tsuki was laughing hysterically by the time I reached her and Furishi, who was the only other one of our group who had decided to stay and watch my humiliation. "Shut up," I snapped, spitting blood onto the ground. The creep had gotten me good – might as well have bitten my lip right off, the way it was bleeding. "Let's get out of here," I said, grabbing Tsuki's arm to lead her away.

She pulled her arm back just as fast as I had taken it. "Nah-ah, Dark. I'm hanging out at Furishi's place tonight," she told me, reaching back and draping her hand over his shoulder. They began to walk away.

I watched them go, my anger building up in me like a plugged-up volcano. I wanted to scream something at them, but I didn't know what exactly, so I didn't. Instead, I stormed off in the opposite direction, past Krad, who was once again sitting up and had a red streak down one side of his face that looked remarkably like a tear at first glance. But it was only that drop of blood from my lip, which had rolled down his cheek when he got up.

I glared at him accusingly as I went, though what I was accusing him of, I wasn't overly certain.

It was normal for Tsuki to go with Furishi to his place. They'd been doing that for a long time, now, and I generally didn't mind it, but today it pissed me off. I felt cheated.

And my damned lip wouldn't stop bleeding.


	3. Chapter 2

Just a quick note for those of you who haven't read my other fics:  
...# Part: Somebody... = Chapter number and whose POV the chapter is in.

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_**Children of the Mirror**_

...2nd Part: Dark...

When I got home, I went straight up to my room and the adjoining bathroom, sneaking past my mom to examine my lip in a mirror. I grimaced when I touched the marks. My lip had stopped bleeding, finally, and now I could see where Krad's teeth had broken through my skin. The inside of my lip wasn't much better. I'd have to wear a scarf over my face or something in order to hide it. But that wouldn't cover up the fact that it still hurt, and the wounds inside of my mouth stung every time my curious tongue brushed over the unfamiliar crevices – which was often.

I washed the blood off my hands and my chin, groaning when I thought about facing my parents about this. I couldn't tell him I'd just kissed some guy because of a dare! My father might go into a tangent about the crime of my actions, and how I was such a disappointment outside of the good grades that didn't quite fit my character. And my mother... I didn't even know what to think. My mother was a very unpredictable person.

In conclusion, I was doomed. And grounded – not that grounding me had ever stopped me before, but it took less effort to just walk out the front door than going through the window.

"Dark? Is that you upstairs?" My mom's voice.

I took another look at my lip in the mirror and moaned miserably. Here comes round one. "Yeah! I'm home!"

"I didn't hear you come in," she said. "Are you okay?" I heard the stairs creak as she walked up them, then she was knocking on my bedroom door.

"I'm fine, Mom," I lied.

"I know that's not true. You only sneak in if something's wrong or you've brought a girl home with you. Now which is it? Let me in, Dark."

I gave a frustrated sigh. "The door's not locked." But maybe it should be.

She opened it and walked into my room, where I now stood in the middle of the floor with my arms crossed over my chest, waiting for her to notice the bite on my face – and she did, faster than I had anticipated.

"Oh, God – where did you get that? What happened?" she worried, coming over to me to examine the damage.

"Uhm... uh..." I didn't know how to answer at all. Make up a story? Tell her the straight truth?

"Dark, did you get into a fight again?" my mother demanded. Apparently, she didn't realize that the cuts on my lip were not exactly common.

"You could say that..." I considered.

"With who?"

Better tell the truth, I decided. "Krad."

Her face suddenly turned very serious. "What did you do to him?" What!? She was being defensive of him, now... why? I couldn't understand it at all.

"Nothing!" I protested. "I didn't do anything!"

She shook my shoulders. "Don't lie to me, Dark. What did you do to get into a fight with him?"

I didn't hear my dad come home. I didn't hear the door or his boots against the floor.

"I didn't get into a fight with him, okay!?" I shouted suddenly. "I kissed him!"

My mother slapped me. This stunned me. It didn't hurt, really, but she didn't do things like that unless she was really upset and I had done something tragically wrong – which, surprisingly enough, did not happen often. She turned away from me and went over to sit on the edge of my bed, just as my father tramped into my room to see what was going on. Actually, by the look on his face, he already knew. Damnit.

I braced myself for the worst. A lot went through my head then, but I never would have guessed at the rumors I would soon hear from the two of them. And I didn't believe them.


	4. Chapter 3

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...3rd Part: Krad...

I couldn't get the taste of blood out of my mouth. I couldn't get the feel of him off of my skin.

I had to admit, that had been original. What was Dark's deal, anyway? An ache in the pit of my stomach feared the worst, which I already had too much of. But another, smaller part of me simply remained curious.

I stood up and brushed some grass away from my clothes, hitting my head on a tree branch but ignoring it as I picked up one of its leaves to examine. But I tired quickly of that and realized, as I did every day, that going back to the house in which I resided was inevitable and inescapable.

. . .

"Krad, you're home!" the woman who others would call my mother rasped, coming up to me and planting a kiss harshly against my lips.

"Hello," I said in an almost robotic tone.

"I'm going out tonight," she announced, taking another swig of whatever it was that was in the bottle she held as she tripped over her feet into the kitchen.

"Do you not always?" I asked demurely. My voice was horridly dry, and now did I not only have the taste of Dark's blood in my mouth, there was alcohol. Alcohol and whatever else this woman's lips tasted like. I didn't have the stomach to guess. I almost wanted the violet-eyed rebel to kiss me again, if only it would take this disgusting feeling away.

The frazzle-haired whore whose tank top was screaming 'wardrobe malfunction' came back over to me and slapped me across the face, so hard that I nearly lost my footing. "None of your business," she crowed, and shoved her alcohol at me.

I took it from her and watched her leave. It brought me some minor level of relief to see her going. There was that spark of hope still somewhere inside of me that someday she would not be coming back. Maybe someone would kill her. I found myself longing for that day.

I dared to leave the house for a while, walking down the street, letting my mind go blank for a while. It was my escape for a small while. I was still carrying that glass bottle with me. It swung in my hand at my side until I found a good candidate of a wall to smash it against. I hurled it at a brick building, letting an angry growl out of my throat as it sped through the air and crashed into a bunch of tiny shards.

My sanity might become that bottle, I thought, if I had to endure any more of this putrid life I had.

Eventually... Eventually I would get out of here. Somehow or other, I'd find a way out. And with that remaining spark of possibility, I headed back to that house I was confined to.


	5. Chapter 4

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...4th Part: Dark...

_I ran through the dark halls of what appeared to be a museum, feeling sure of myself as I easily got past the brainless guards everywhere. I didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing, but it felt great. The thrill of it gave me an adrenaline rush that only made me to feel more arrogant._

_Then I reached where I guess I was headed. There was a painting hanging from the wall which caught my eye. I had the notion that I had to steal it. Presumably, this was only a dream, so I figured, Why not? and plucked it off the wall._

'_Dark, look out!'_

_Something rammed into my back, startling me even more than the odd voice that seemed to have come from inside my head. With that voice still occupying my curious thoughts, I pictured a red-headed kid with unruly hair and big, innocent-looking crimson eyes. He was a few years younger than me, if I had to guess._

_I turned in the direction of whatever it was that had hit me, then, and I saw... Krad!? What was he doing here – and decked out in huge white wings, too! He looked like an angel, save for the menacing expression on his face._

I woke with a start, sitting up and rubbing my forehead in total confusion. Who was that read-haired kid, anyway? I came to the conclusion, then, that dreams would never make sense.

. . .

I walked to school, still puzzling over the dream, and then thinking about my parents' lectures about the world going against one boy. It sounded like a cliché load of crap to me, but then there was this tiny part of me that almost considered it. Still, my parents had a knack for overstressing things.

"Hey, Dark!" I heard Tsuki's voice behind me – and the engine of Furishi's car.

I glanced sideways at them as they pulled up next to me, following me slowly along the road as I walked.

"Why're you walking, baby?" she asked, straightening the bill of her studded cap over her choppy, punk-style hair.

"Because I feel like it," I retorted. "Why else?"

Tsuki raised an eyebrow at me. "Uh-huh." She gestured to Furishi to speed up and waved once to me. "See ya in prison," she chimed.

Prison is what we sometimes called the school. I shook my head at her as she settled back into the passenger seat of the shiny black convertible. "See you," I muttered.

The real reason I was walking to school, was not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I felt reluctantly obligated to, on the chance that I might run across Krad. My parents had told me about Krad's family – or lack thereof. His mother was a prostitute, and no one would ever know who his father was. Some family. My parents were a little wacky, but I knew I had their love, and they weren't really that bad. And when they had heard that I kissed Krad – against his will – they told me all about it, and now I would be grounded for even longer if I didn't apologize. That, and now I felt a little guilty.

And I was getting confused. Very confused – mostly by that stupid dream.

. . .

Soon enough, I saw a familiar blond figure turn onto the street up at the next intersection. For a moment, I watched him walk, his long ponytail swaying slightly with each step he took. Then, sighing heavily, I ran to catch up to him.

"Krad!" I shouted, putting my hand up in the air when he looked back, hoping he would stop. "Wait up!"

He did stop, surprisingly. "What do want _now_?"

"Look," I said, clapping a hand over his shoulder. He wasn't quite looking at me, so I rolled my eyes apologetically at nobody and grabbed his face, turning it toward me. "I'm sorry," I said. My voice sounded fiercer than I was intending, so I backed off a bit, refusing to touch him anymore. "You know... about... yesterday..."

Krad almost looked astonished. But then his face shifted and he was smirking at me. "Well, I suppose I got my payback, Mousy," he commented.

This confused me. Mousy...? Why had he just called me that? _This is the end for you, Dark_. I shivered. I had just heard his voice in my head, like a pictureless continuation of my dream. "Yeah..." I said, ducking my head to hide the marks of his teeth behind the collar of my jacket. "Why did you call me that?"

"That girl, Tsuki, often taunts people with the phrase, 'Are you a man or a mouse?' and by the way she was laughing after you kissed me, I think you fell for it, just like anyone else. You, Dark, are a mouse for letting her push you around," he explained, very obviously.

"I don't let anyone push me around!" I argued. "And I'm no mouse!"

Krad started walking again, and I walked with him. "So why are you walking to school, then? Why apologize? That's not the rumored Phantom Thief we all know."

"You don't know me," I argued again, shoving my hands in my pockets. "I can walk if I feel like it, and I can apologize if the urge to strikes me. It has nothing to do with anyone else," I stated.

"Of course," Krad said. I couldn't read the tone in his voice.


	6. Chapter 5

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...5th Part: Krad...

It was a little unnerving to walk with Dark. I had had a dream the previous night that had given me the overwhelming feeling that I was supposed to hate him. I contributed this to his actions that day, and that I was sort of hurt by it, but I still had the crushing feeling of loathing for him that I never had for even my mother... Well, maybe my mother, but Dark had somehow gotten up there on the list, even though I'd gotten much worse from people than a light kiss.

And none of this explained the stranger.

In my dream, there had also been a boy with cerulean eyes and pale blue hair, who I understood to be a police Commander – though how I came across this knowledge, I still didn't know. And what was worse, I seemed to be stuck inside this boy's body; in his mind. I couldn't get out.

Shaking my head slightly to clear it, I turned back to my book. It was a bunch of Shakespeare plays. How I'd ever decided to read these was a mystery as well, but I'd found I rather enjoyed them. I turned a page to reveal the title page of the next story. "Twelfth Night", it was called.

'If music be the food of love, play on.' It didn't quite fit my puzzling mood, but it would do. If nothing else, it would distract me more efficiently.

"See ya, Krad," Dark's voice penetrated the voice of Orcino, and I realized that we had already reached the school.

I looked up to see him already joining his false gang of rebels. Tsuki was laughing loudly, and Furishi joined her laugh with his own quieter snickers. But his face said more. And Dark was back to acting as his appearance hinted.

I just watched for a while, as I was pretty well known for doing and probably shouldn't continue doing, and when he disappeared through the doors, I uttered an unsure, "Good-bye..."


	7. Chapter 6

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...6th Part: Dark...

I didn't talk to Krad for months after that one strange morning, but the dreams didn't go away, as much as might've tried to force them out of my brain.

I was always running through museums and other giant display buildings or old structures, snatching up this piece or that, and getting chased down by numerous guards and this one blue-haired kid. They never caught me, of course, but it was still really odd – especially the kid. The kid didn't make sense.

The red-haired kid in my head was there all the time, too. He'd either be talking to me in my mind, or more recently, the dreams had been long enough that I'd gotten away with whatever artwork it was and suddenly I'd be inside this kid's body; in _his_ mind. And I couldn't explain any of it.

I dreamed of flying a lot, too – that much was fun. And this pair of twins popped up every now and again, which was interesting. But I started to dislike seeing them because I'd just turn into that red-headed kid again.

Krad showed up even less than the girls, and every time he did make an appearance, he was either trying to kill me or the red-head. It irked me that I didn't know the motive for this – maybe because I'd kissed him? But that sounded ridiculous when I thought about it.

He never managed to kill either one of us, and for that I was somewhat grateful. If I was going to have dreams about some really weird alternate universe life, I might as well get through it with as little damage as possible.

Oh, and what was even stranger than the other boy that was always chasing me, was that he and Krad seemed to be in the same predicament that the red-head and I were in.

. . .

"Dark, quit spacing out on me," Tsuki said. "What? Aren't you sleeping these days?"

I threw a glare at her. "Of course I sleep. What kind of a question is that?"

"You have been really out of it lately, Kaito," Akane said, joining in on the conversation. Akane was the only other girl in our group besides Tsuki. In a crowd, you'd be able to pick her out without hardly even trying. She had short, spiky hair that she kept dying hot pink, and wore the most bipolar-looking clothes I'd ever laid eyes on.

"Seriously, Dark," Furishi agreed. "Some of us haven't been able to buy lunch –"

"– or anything else –" Akane interrupted.

"– for weeks, now, because you haven't been doing your job," Furishi finished his sentence.

"You're all ridiculous," I said shortly. "I know you all have your own money. Just use what you've got or steal your own! Damnit; I'm not your mother!"

The seven of them all stared at me in disbelief. I'd never really yelled at them like that before. Sure, sometimes they could really piss me off, but I'd never been so irritable before. And my simple occupation of pit-pocketing, I rather enjoyed.

I was just confused, that's all. "Sorry guys," I muttered. "You know what... I'm gonna go... get some fresh air or something." I got up from the table and walked out of the building. I could feel all fourteen eyes boring into my back as I went.

. . .

When I got outside, I found myself meandering toward a group of maple trees toward the front of the school property. No one was around. Heaving a huge sigh, I fell back against the trunk of one of them, sliding down to sit at its base, my arms draped over my knees.

I think I nearly fell asleep, until I tall pair of legs came to stand next to me. I squinted up at Krad, who was looking down at me in puzzlement.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Beats me. I'm tired."

"Do you mind me asking why?"

I closed my eyes again, ignoring the knowledge of who I was talking to, or maybe I just didn't care. "Funny dreams," I said simply.

"About what?" he wondered.

I scowled a bit. "Some weird alternate life or something," I explained. "And this random red-head kid..."

"I see..."

I opened my eyes to look at him again. "You got a girlfriend?" I wondered. I don't know what possessed me to ask, but I did. I was just curious, and I didn't mind talking to him. As odd as it may be, talking to strangers can be easier than talking to people you know.

"What?"

"A girlfriend," I repeated.

He shook his head. "What do you think, idiot?"

"Oh."

Krad laughed – I don't think I'd ever heard him laugh before – and he sat down next to me, setting his book off to the side. I couldn't really describe his laugh, but I rather liked it. I began to laugh, too.

Even though I didn't know what was funny.


	8. Chapter 7

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...7th Part: Krad...

I cringed, bracing myself as I opened the door to my house.

"You're late!" the frazzle-haired woman screeched at me. She came tromping up to me and smacked me across the face, which was becoming a routine thing. "Why are you late!?"

"Does it really matter?" I remarked, resisting the urge to touch my stinging cheek. "You don't pay any mind to me, anyway." I cleaned up after her, cooked sometimes, and managed what little money she left lying around. But she was rarely here anyway – which was nice, save for the anxiety that she could at any moment return – and when she was here, she was either sleeping, drinking, or 'doing business' with some skanky stranger.

She hit me again. The woman had a surprisingly good arm. I caught myself on the doorway, spinning around abruptly when I heard a low chuckle behind me. One of the 'businessmen' was here.

I blocked out whatever it was he said, shoving past my mother and rushing off to my room, restraining my legs from breaking into a run. I hated these people. If I could kill them, maybe... maybe...

I didn't know.

. . .

I walked down the sidewalk to school, keeping an eye out for Dark, should he happen to take a break from his motorcycle for a day. I didn't figure he would, but there was always that miniscule chance...

I shouldn't be looking for him, anyway. It was ridiculous – especially when my unconscious mind always obsessed over killing him or the strange little red-head that he, too, had dreamed about. It struck me as horribly uncanny that we would be dreaming practically the same things.

The unmistakable sound of a motor came to my ears. Well, Dark wasn't walking today.

I thought about calling out to him as he rode by, but I held my tongue. As he passed me, though, he slipped something out of his leather jacket pocket and tossed it to my side of the street. The car full of other people from his little gang nearly crushed it, because it hadn't quite made it to the sidewalk.

Once they were out of my sight, I debated with myself whether or not to go and retrieve whatever it was that he'd dropped. I finally decided that I was curious enough to pick it up.

It was a simple piece of notebook paper, but something else was folded up inside of it. Frowning in confusion, I unfolded the paper and a cross dropped into my hand. It was small enough to fit in my hand, and fairly light, though it looked like it was made of gold – mostly white gold.

I turned my attention back to the paper, hoping that it would clear up what didn't make sense. On it was written: _'I thought you were missing something, so I stole it for you. Hope you like it.'_ I still didn't understand the odd gift. If anything, my confusion worsened.

I wanted to wear the pendant, but more likely than not it would get stolen if it wasn't hidden. So I stuck it in my pocket. It occupied a great deal of my attention throughout the day.

This had something to do with the dreams. I was sure of it.

. . .

At the end of the day, I caught Dark as he was examining something on his bike. His friends didn't appear to be around anymore. I thought about saying his name, but I figured that he would notice me there eventually.

Finally, he did. He turned to me and smiled slightly – one of those crooked smiles that looks like a smirk, but more pleasant. "Hey, Krad. Did you get –?"

"Why?" I interrupted.

Dark looked puzzled. "What?"

I pulled the cross out of my pocket and held it up for him to look. "Why did you give me this?" I demanded.

Dark quirked his mouth in the same manner that one would roll their eyes. "Turn around," he said, taking the pendant from me.

I hesitated.

"Oh, come on – I'm not going to do anything," he insisted.

I turned my back to him, my mind reeling for really no reason at all. I felt a slight tug or two on my hair and turned my head to try to see what he was doing with it. He turned my head back again, so I stayed put while he fussed with it some more.

Dark stepped away, then. I turned back to him to see a look of satisfaction on his face and no cross in his possession. "Do you ever get that weird déjà vu feeling?" he asked, leaning back against his motorcycle.

I pulled my hair over my shoulder to see that he had tied my hair to the cross, keeping all the strands of my ponytail together at the ends. "Yes... I do." I looked at his face again.

"You've been having dreams, too, haven't you?" The question was more of a statement than a question. It sounded like he had concluded this and was already convinced that it was true.

"Yes," I said again.

"What do you suppose... Why do we keep having them?" he wondered.

I examined the precious trinket for a little while longer before answering, "...I don't know."

. . .

The frazzle-haired woman wasn't there when I returned to the house after school. I thought she had gone out already, so I proceeded to picking up stray beer bottles from the furniture and floors and scavenging for lost bills. I wished she would stop wasting the money on alcohol.

There was a knock on the door.

There is _never_ a knock on the door when the whore isn't here.

I went to answer it, opening the door to reveal the ugly man that had appeared the day before. "She's not here," I informed him. I attempted to close the door, but he held it open, pushing his way in.

"Do you know where she is?"

"I do not."

"When she's coming back?"

"No."

He walked into the small living-room, seating himself on the couch. I hoped to ignore him, walking by to search the next room. But he grabbed my arm. My heart leapt into my throat and I tried not to panic. It is not good when a 'businessman' stops you. "What is that you've got in your hair?" he asked. "It looks expensive."

"I wouldn't know," I said, silently pleading to some nonexistent god that this man let go of my arm. "A friend gave it to me." A friend? Was Dark really my friend? I hadn't the time to ponder this.

"Really?" He didn't believe me. "A friend?"

"Yes," I said, managing to keep my voice smooth.

"Do you think I could be your friend for the night? Fill in for your mother, kid. I'll pay you double what I pay her."

No. "Let go of me," I warned quietly.

"What? You won't do it? I'm going to pay you!" he insisted. "You your mother's kid or what?"

"No..."

"What's that?"

I glared at him, coming to a fierce and sudden decision that might get me out of here for good. Snatching an empty glass bottle from the decrepit coffee table, I smashed it over his head, repeating myself, "NO!"

I ran to the kitchen, fumbling around through the drawers to find a knife. I got one. It wasn't very big, but it was sharp and would serve its purpose.

As I'd anticipated, the man hadn't been knocked out by the hit he'd taken and was now coming after me, angrier than hell. When he came at me, I shoved the blade into his chest, but he was able to wrap his hands around my throat. I ripped the knife out of him and slashed his. Blood was everywhere, gushing out of his artery as he slid to the floor.

And that was when my 'mother' decided to arrive.


	9. Chapter 8

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...8th Part: Dark...

I didn't see Krad anywhere. I was concerned, but I wasn't about to go looking for him right away. I figured he was just sick or something.

A few students walked by, and I snagged money from all of them, shoving it into my pocket and waiting for another opportunity.

I was about to snatch a twenty from someone's pocket, but my concentration completely faltered and my hand smacked back down onto the table in a fist. Were my eyes deceiving me? I hoped so, anyway.

"What are you doing!?" I demanded.

Tsuki was kissing Furishi. My_ girlfriend_ was spit-swapping another guy! And one I knew, too!

"What's it look like?" she laughed. "Wanna break up with me or something?"

So it was all a joke. She'd been cheating on me right under my nose. And now I felt like an oblivious idiot. "Thank you, captain obvious!" I snapped. I was so betrayed. And stupid. How could I not notice before now?

Tsuki only laughed.

Which pissed me off.

Suddenly, I hated her.

And it happened just that quick. "It's over, Dark."

. . .

I left my motorcycle in the school parking lot and just ran. I didn't feel like going home.

So I decided to locate where it was that Krad lived. Maybe I'd check up on him.

It took me a while to find the right place, asking around and getting understandably strange looks from people. I didn't really care what they thought, though. I didn't hardly even care what I thought. My mind was pretty much blank.

I knocked on the door, and it slowly swung open – it hadn't been closed all the way – so I took a chance and walked in. I didn't see anyone, so I stepped farther into the house. "Krad?" I called. My voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silent space. "Krad, are you here? It's Dark..."

When I peered through the doorway to the kitchen, I nearly fell over from the shock I received. Krad was sitting on his knees, slumped back against a row of cabinets. His hands were splayed palms-up in front of him, and his eyes looked glazed when he turned his head up to look at me. There were two bodies lying just inches away from him, and everything was covered with blood: the floor, his hands; some was smeared across one side of his face, and the stuff on the floor was soaking into the knees of his jeans.

"Dark, I killed them," he said softly. Then the most horrifying grin crossed his face and a strangled sound that was a cross between a laugh and a sob came from his throat. He shoved at the woman's head. "She's finally dead," he told me. More of those laughter-sobs, and his shoulders shook with each one.

"How long have you been there?" I wondered. The blood on his hands was all dry and the stuff on the floor was congealed and close to drying as well.

"All night," he said as if it was nothing at all. "I killed them last night..."

To be quite honest, I was completely freaked out – terrified, even – of the scene before me, but I walked in there anyway and extended my hand to him, silently urging him to get up.

He took my hand, and I pulled him up. Krad tripped over one of the bodies and I caught him, helping him right himself again and leading him away from that room, shutting the door behind me.

"Now what?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "I don't know."

An idea struck me, and it seemed the only available option. "You have to come with me," I told him, pulling him out of that house with me. I hope he didn't want anything from that place, because he was never going back.

"Where are we going?"

"To get my bike. And then you and I are going to my house, where you are going to take a shower and eat something," I decided.

Krad didn't respond; just followed me. We got to the school and I got onto the motorcycle, telling him to get on behind me, which he did, hesitantly circling my waist with his arms.

. . .

I didn't sneak past my mom, but Krad did. I directed him to my room and said 'Hello' to her before following him, so she wouldn't be suspicious of me.

I pointed. "The shower's in there. I'll bring up some food, alright?"

I had to shake him a few times to get him to respond. "Okay..."

Worn out, I flopped back onto my bed to stare at the ceiling and just listen as the shower started. The endless rush of the water was relaxing.

What now? was the last thought I had before unintentionally falling asleep.


	10. Chapter 9

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...9th Part: Dark...

I woke up, not to something prodding y shoulder as one would expect, but to eyes. Unblinking golden eyes, just staring at me.

"Ah! Geez, when did you get there!?" I found myself looking around for a clock.

Krad shrugged his bare shoulders. He was sitting on the edge of my bed... in a towel. I rolled my eyes at him and got up to look for some clothes. Hopefully, we were the same size.

And there was something else unusual about him, too – other than the insane expression in his eyes; eyes that never seemed to _blink_. I just couldn't quite place what it was, though.

I grabbed a pair of dark jeans and tried to find something with color on it. I had never seen Krad wear black, and I thought it would be a little weird to see him wearing it now. That's when I realized how colorless my wardrobe really was. Black, red, some dark purple, more black... I pulled out a red shirt finally and tossed the clothes to him.

I was almost surprised to see that his arms moved to catch them. He'd hardly moved at all since I found him – and before that, I assumed.

He got up and ventured back to the bathroom to get dressed. As I watched him walk, I realized just what it was about him that had confused me: his hair. It was down, out of the ponytail I'd always seen it in, and his hair was slightly darker and heavier-looking because it was still damp.

I was pulled out of my moment of enlightenment by my mother's voice. "Dark! Come down for supper!"

"Okay! Just a sec!" I shouted back, and tapped at the bathroom door. "Hey Krad? I'll be back in a bit. Don't come downstairs."

I didn't hear an answer. I hoped he was nodding.

"Dark?" My mom again.

"Alright, already! I'm coming!"

. . .

I should've known there would be interrogation. Man, was I slow today.

"So why isn't your hair wet?" my dad asked.

"What?"

"I heard the shower running upstairs. Your hair's not wet, though."

I found this observation profoundly stupid. "You know my hair dries fast."

"Does it?"

"Yes!"

"Sanrou, stop asking silly questions and let Dark eat his food," my mother scolded him. I could've laughed, but I didn't. Mom saves the day.

Well, she did, until Krad ruined it. There was a loud _thunk_ upstairs.

"What was that?" Now my mom was getting suspicious.

"...Cat?" I suggested. There was that hesitant guilt in my voice that meant I was better off saying nothing at all.

"Dark, you know we don't have a cat."

I gulped. "Don't we? ...Oh." That was a worse cover-up than my last statement. I didn't know what I was so worried about. Surely they wouldn't mind Krad being here. I could bring pretty much anyone here and the most they would do was scowl and give me a lecture when whoever it was went home. Oh, yeah... Krad wasn't going home...

My dad stood up and was about to go investigate, but he didn't have to.

Krad walked down the stairs. "Dark, I think I..." He looked at my dad and his voice trailed off. "...broke... something..."

On the bright side, my parents weren't mad for anything; just dumbfounded. And that insane glazed look in Krad's eyes had gone away, for the most part.

I would have some explaining to do, though.

. . .

I didn't tell my parents about the murders, but somehow I managed to make an excuse for him to stay the night without really saying much at all.

It was late, now, and we sat on my bed, just talking.

"We have to leave," Krad said. "I can't stand these dreams any longer."

"Well, where do you think we would go?" I pointed out. "And even if we did figure that out, how would going anywhere prevent us from dreaming?"

Krad shrugged and shook his head. "I think we have to find something."

"Find _what_?"

"I don't know."

I glared at him. "Stop saying that! It's your idea, you must know _something_! And how can we find it if we don't know what it is we're looking for? That doesn't make any sense."

"Don't you have that feeling, though?" he asked. "That something's pulling us away from all of this?" He gestured with his arms to display my room – and moreover, everything we knew.

I considered this for a while. "Well, yeah... but –"

"See? We have to go!"

I repeated, "Go _where_?"

"I told you I don't _know_!" He lunged across the bed at me, and soon we were fighting and yelling at each other, bringing across me that déjà vu feeling again.

I didn't hear my mom coming up the stairs. By then we had fallen off the bed onto the floor – which hurt – and were beating on each other down there. She opened the door and flipped on the light before either of us noticed her. Even then we weren't done fighting.

"Boys! Stop it!" she yelled. My father came up behind her and they had to drag us apart, keeping us locked in their grasp until we cooled off.

Krad still glared at me, and I glared back.

"Now what's the meaning of all this?" my dad demanded.

"It's nothing," Krad told him before I could. I think both my parents were surprised that he was the one to answer.

"It sure didn't look like nothing," my mother put in. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," I said, echoing Krad's answer.

"Just a stupid fight," he agreed.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"Sorry," he echoed.

My parents looked understandably confused, but they let go of us, warning us to not start fighting again and not to wake them up.

"Love you guys," I called quietly after them, and turned back to Krad. "Fine," I gave in. "We're leaving."

That fight reminded me too much of the dreams to ignore it.


	11. Chapter 10

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...10th Part: Krad...

Dark searched his room until he found a backpack and tossed it at me. I caught it and set it at my feet, waiting as he grumbled to himself and looked for another.

"Are you going to tell them you're leaving?" I wondered.

Dark didn't answer, but he managed to dig up another backpack for himself, and proceeded to stuff it with his clothes, still talking to himself. "We'll take my motorcycle..."

I didn't argue. If we had anything more than these backpacks, I didn't know how we'd manage to carry it, but I was sure Dark would figure out a way. His intense scowl said it all. He was upset, but he was also determined. Nothing could stop him from carrying out whatever plans he had.

He stood up and stared down at the bag, tapping his foot in thought.

"What all do you have in there?" I asked.

"Clothes. Enough for both of us." He raked his hand through his hair and then zipped the backpack closed. "We can put some food in that one," he continued, pulling a vest and another jacket from his closet and flinging them in my direction. "Put those on," he instructed.

I held the clothes in front of me to take a look at them. "Why?"

"Because I like that vest and you'll want a jacket," he explained simply.

I still didn't feel like arguing with him and wasting time so I put them on, snatching up the empty backpack and following him when he walked out of the room.

Dark went down to the kitchen and held out his hand to take the backpack I carried. I gave it to him, and he went through the cupboards, throwing stuff into the bag that wouldn't quickly parish, and things that could be easily cooked over a fire if we needed to. I didn't pay much attention to what he packed specifically, but we still had room in both backpacks.

"Anything else?" I asked him.

He thought for a moment, then dug in his pocket and pulled out a wallet to see what he had. "I've got more in my room, I think," he informed me. "And if you find anything up there that you think we might want, pack it."

I nodded once and we headed back upstairs.

While Dark hunted for the rest of his money, I went into the bathroom to look for the cross he'd given me, and my hair tie. I was getting tired of it falling in my face.

Soon we were ready to leave. Dark sighed as we stepped out of his house, looking back at it when we got to his motorcycle. "I guess I'd be leaving in a year or so anyway," he muttered, and mounted the bike.

I got on behind him, holding onto his backpack. "We should stop by my house," I suggested. "I have some money stored away there, too, that we could use."

There was a moment of silence from Dark and then he started the bike. "I don't think we should go back there," he said.

I grinned, but Dark couldn't see it. "Why? Scared of corpses, Mousy?"

His hands gripped the handles tighter and his back was tense. "Maybe," he grumbled. "But so what?" he said in his defense. "Do you really want to go back to that stink hole?"

"You mean, do I really want to go back and see my mother's dead body?" I guessed, then almost laughed. "Of course."

Dark shivered.


	12. Chapter 11

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...11th Part: Dark...

"I'll stay here," I told him. I really had no desire to go back in there – unless he didn't come back out, which then I would have to go get him again.

He got off the bike and handed me his backpack. I caught the grin on his face. "I'll be back in ten minutes, at most," he said. "You can time me if you wish."

"Maybe I will," I retorted, and watched as he sprinted up to the house as if he couldn't get there soon enough.

He was back in _five_ minutes. I hadn't expected that.

I couldn't get _away_ fast enough. He got back on behind me and as soon as I felt his fingers touch my back, we were off and speeding.

"I got his wallet," he shouted to me over the wind, meaning whatever man's corpse accompanied his mother's.

"Has he got any credit cards?" I wondered.

"Yes, but we shouldn't use them. If someone finds the body they might be able to track us down."

"Oh."

He patted my shoulder and laughed briefly. "But money shouldn't be a problem for you," he pointed out, "'Phantom Thief'."

"You wouldn't think so," I muttered.

. . .

I didn't know how long we'd been traveling or where we were, but it the night was gone and dawn had passed. It might have been about noon, or not quite. But whatever the case, I was tired.

I pulled into the parking lot of a hotel. We were in a big city somewhere, but it wasn't one I recognized or knew much about. I realized just how small my world had been before.

"I need to stop for a while," I announced. "Maybe we can get a room."

Krad followed me wordlessly into the hotel. We got a room for the day and as soon as we got into it, I dropped my backpack on the floor and crashed on one of the beds. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

. . .

_I never got answers from Krad. There was only fighting and the blind determination to kill me._

"_What did I ever do to you, huh!?"I shouted, dodging another golden blast and flinging my own weird violet magic back at him._

_No answer._

_The scene switched on me and I found myself crashing backward through a high window somewhere. Krad was coming at me with some weird sword that my mind was trying to tell me was an artwork... or a person. I don't know. I didn't understand it._

"_What the hell is going on!?" I shouted to whoever or whatever would decide to give me an explanation._

_The sword jabbed into my shoulder and I screamed from the sudden pain. I hit the ground and Krad was kneeling over me, driving the thing deeper. I couldn't focus on what he was saying, but he had that grin on his face again. It looked like he was enjoying my pain – enthusiastically so._

_I was getting angry. There was no real reason for any of this was there? Was he trying to kill me or what!? And why?_

_I needed to get him off of me, first of all. _

_And suddenly, my ears focused on what he was saying, and the words rang through my head louder than they should have, even if Krad would have been shouting at me – which he wasn't._

"_Those of us who don't have our own forms... nothing we hope for... nothing we wish for... will ever be granted to us!"_

. . .

When I woke up again, Krad was the one sleeping. Rubbing my arm – I had slept on it wrong – I looked at the clock and discovered that it was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

I don't think I'd ever seen Krad's face so peaceful before. It certainly differed from the strange look I got from him in my dream. And even when Krad was still that quiet loner reading Shakespeare, his face was never really that calm. There was always some sense of resentment in the expression. You had to really look to notice some days, but it was there.

"Krad?" I got up and went over to shake his shoulder lightly. "Krad, get up. We should probably get going again."

Krad's eyes opened slowly and he frowned at me, breaking the smooth lack of expression he'd had previously.

"Come on," I insisted, throwing my arms out to the sides theatrically and grinning up at the ceiling. "The world awaits, my friend!"

I never expected to hear it again, but Krad began to laugh.


	13. Chapter 12

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...12th Part: Krad...

Dark's clothes weren't very comfortable. As invincible as I was beginning to feel, the snug fabrics still made me a little self-conscious. I was tempted to have him pull over when we passed through the various cities so I could buy my own. I was partial to white, too, and most of Dark's clothes were quite the opposite.

As I was musing over this one day – and yes, it was daylight; we'd manage to fix our sleeping habits – I heard a metallic _clink_ behind us, on the road.

This was when I realized that I'd forgotten to keep my hair tucked down the back of my jacket.

"Dark, pull over!" I shouted at him.

Dark pulled off to the side of the road and stopped, turning his head to look at me strangely as I scrambled off of the motorcycle and started running back down the sidewalk.

"Krad!" he yelled after me. "Where are you _going_!?"

"I dropped it!" I shouted back at him, running into some people and ignoring their protests as I continued on. Dark ran after me, apologizing to them for me as he passed.

"Dropped _what_?" he asked.

I caught the sun glimpse off of it and turned toward the road. I was about to run out and get it, but Dark caught my shoulder and pulled me away. I fell back onto the pavement, hitting my head.

The idiot hauled me back to my feet again by the collar of my jacket. "Now what was _that_ all about!?" he demanded. "You almost got hit by that damn car, meat-head!"

"Stop calling me names – it'll do you no good," I said, glaring at him. "I want my cross back!"

Dark lost the majority of his hostility and raised an eyebrow at me before turning to look at the road. "Oh." He turned his exasperated violet gaze back on me. "You freaked me out and almost got yourself killed... because of _that_!?"

When he said it like that...

"Yes. I did! Is there something wrong with that!?" I shouted defensively.

"Well, yeah! There is!" he shouted back, shaking me.

We glared at each other for a long while, and car after car ran over my pendant. I couldn't understand my own stupid attachment to the thing, but whatever the reason I wanted to have it back, badly.

I gestured to the street. "Would you just let me get it already?"

"If you'll use a little of that common sense I know is hidden in that blond head of yours."

I shoved him away from me and shouldered past him back to the edge of the street.

As my _lack_ of luck would have it, this was one of the busier streets we'd ridden on. Of course it would be. Taking a deep breath to prepare myself, I went for it.


	14. Chapter 13

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...13th Part: Dark...

I watched him run out into the street and felt compelled to take a hasty step forward. He snatched the cross up off of the ground and just barely managed to dodge the oncoming traffic.

If I really had wings, I'd get him away from there faster. I could imagine it: great black wings spreading from my back as I leapt into the street to pull him away before he managed to kill himself. My back itched with the pictured sensation.

When I heard a loud and unmistakable sound of a car crashing, I nearly had a heart attack, but the sound had come from farther away. Krad ran back to me then, flinging himself into my arms and again just barely escaping death – or at least some serious injuries.

His knuckles were white as he gripped the edge of my jacket. Apparently, he _did_ realize that what he'd just done was life-threatening. "That was so incredibly stupid," I told him, "that I am almost at a loss for words."

"Well, thank you for that brilliant update," he retorted, pushing himself away from me again. Krad took off his jacket and tossed it over my face before fussing over his hair.

This was about when I started hearing sirens. An ambulance came screaming up the road, and when all the cars were forced by law to pull off to the side of the road, I couldn't help thinking that that would have been a more opportune moment to retrieve the cross. I rolled my eyes, and made the mistake of glancing over to where the ambulance had stopped.

My jaw dropped – not because of the totaled car, but _where_ exactly the driver had crashed it.

I thought I was going to cry.

Somewhere under that mess...

... was my bike.

I dropped Krad's jacket, staring in denial at the place where I'd parked my motorcycle. Shaking, my hands reached out to it feebly and some pathetic sort of squeak came out of my throat. My knees gave out under me and I sank to the ground.

Krad was still having difficulties with getting the cross to stay attached to his hair. Giving up the struggle and shoving the thing in his pocket, he raised an eyebrow at me. "What's with the theatrics?" he wondered.

I blinked several times and made my arm work enough to point.

Krad's shoulders sagged. "Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!"

My arms dropped to my sides and I glared up at him. "I blame you," I snarled.

"_What_?"

"If you hadn't made us stop to retrieve that blasted cross of yours –"

"_You're_ the one who gave it to me!" he argued.

"_So_!? If we had just _continued on_, my bike wouldn't have had the_ chance_ to become_ road pizza_!" My voice was getting louder as the sentence progressed, until I was practically screaming at him.

"Well, what's worse, Dark – think about it! – totaling your motorcycle, or totaling it _while you're still on it_!? Maybe I saved you from something!"

I had no words for him anymore. I grabbed a hold of his ankles, yanking his feet right out from under him. He fell over with a yelp, and then came back at me, swinging his fist at my face. He didn't miss, and my jaw was knocked into my tongue. I spat the blood out of my mouth at him, then tackled him.

We rolled, fist flying and voices rising. As good a fighter as Krad was, I discovered I was better. Eventually, I managed to pin him down. His head and shoulders were no longer on the sidewalk and I held him there.

Krad's eyes widened in sudden panic. He turned his head in the direction that the cars were coming from, and then back to me when he spotted a set of wheels. He glanced back and forth between the two threats a few times, his breathing speeding up into horrified pants. His chest heaved beneath me with each one. Those tires were coming up fast.

"_DARK GET OFF OF ME_!" he shrieked. His struggles grew fiercer, his face was distorted with hopelessness, and whimpers accompanied his panting and crying.

At the last possible second, I pulled him out of harm's way, wrapping my arms securely around him as the car passed by. He pounded my back once, but his anger gave way and he buried himself into my hold, bunching the back of my coat up in his fists.

"You ever pull something like that again and I'll kill you!" he sobbed. "I _hate_ you!"


	15. Chapter 14

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...14th Part: Dark...

Insurance would cover the damages of my motorcycle – in other words, I might have enough to buy another if they gave me the money fast enough. I didn't plan on sticking around, though.

But the police seemed to have other ideas.

I was a Missing Person, and they were going to try to bring me back home. Krad was free to go, which worked a little to our advantage, if he cooperated with me. Or if he didn't, that was okay, too.

Nothing could hold me!

They didn't lock me up or any such thing, but there were police running about everywhere, obviously, and there was one young woman who was posted at the door to stop me, should I think of running away.

I smirked to myself.

Her appearance wasn't bad, for a police officer. This would be a piece of cake.

Our plan was that Krad provide some kind of a distraction so I could get out of the building, and then we would see if we could outrun the cops, snatching our backpacks from just outside the doorway as we went.

Now if only Krad would show up...

Plan B, was that I simply try to persuade my lady guard to let me go – and then run, lest she change her mind and sick her comrades on me.

And still, I waited for Krad. Maybe he'd ditched me. I really wouldn't have been surprised if he had.

Bored, I began to eavesdrop on the commotion around me. It wasn't long before I found something of interest.

"...there's a disturbance..." I picked out of the murmur. "...right outside..."

A window was opened, and officers peered out at whatever it was that seemed to be 'disturbing' the people.

"'I must obey'," shouted a familiar voice. "'This comes in seeking you: But there's no remedy; I shall answer it! What will you do, now my necessity makes me to ask you for my purse!'" I stifled a laugh. "'It grieves me much more for what I cannot do for you, than what befalls myself! You stand amazed; but be of comfort!'"

I stood and stretched casually, trying not to grin too widely. "You and your crazy artist," I muttered under my breath. "The delinquent shouts Shakespeare to the police station."

I approached the woman guarding the door for me, whose head was turned toward the open window in puzzlement. "What's going on out there?" I asked her, knowing perfectly well what.

"Should we arrest him...?" one of the other officers wondered, looking just as dumbfounded.

"I don't think we can," another said. "Would this fall under Freedom of Speech?"

I almost laughed again.

"'Will you deny me now?'" Krad's voice went on. "'Is't possible that my deserts to you can lack persuasion? Do not tempt my misery, lest that it make me so unsound a man as to upbraid you with those kindnesses that I have done for you!'"

"What?" the woman officer finally noticed me. Well, that was one chance lost that I could've just walked out with. Oh well.

"I wondered what's happening out there," I reiterated. "Shouldn't you be going out there to investigate or something?"

"'Let me speak a little! This youth that you see here I snatched one half out of the jaws of death, relieved him with such sanctity of love, and to his image, which methought did promise most venerable worth, I did devotion!'"

By this time, Krad's voice was losing its vigor, so the other officers ignored it, but the lady I was supposedly being watched by was curious.

"Maybe you should go check it out," I suggested.

She looked at me and her face turned stern. "No; I was ordered to stay here and keep watch on you."

I stepped a little closer, relaxing my face considerably to mask a new expression, capturing her eyes with mine and smirking lightly. "You could take me with you," I offered.

She was slowly giving in; I could feel it. I reached for the door handle, but she moved her hand in front of it to block me. "No you don't."

"'But O how vile an idol proves this god. Though hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame. Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil are empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil.'"

There were only inches between this woman and me, now. I touched my hand over hers, gently moving it away and leading her aside from my escape route. Flinging the door open, I yelled at Krad what I had read once over his shoulder, from the very page he had just quoted, "'Lead me on!'"

Krad pointed to where the backpacks were sitting and I snatched them up, tossing one to him as he ran with me. "That was my line," he protested once we'd gotten a head start on the presumably shocked policemen.

I only laughed.

Another easy getaway for the great Phantom Thief, Dark –

"Mousy!" Krad warned, shoving me into an alleyway between the next two buildings we came across.

And, as mentioned: easy getaway.


	16. Chapter 15

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...15th Part: Krad...

Dark was laughing arrogantly, walking ahead of me as we traipsed through the back roads of the city, gradually making our way out of it. He was always talking about some kind of déjà vu feeling – Well; now I was feeling it.

"You should've seen their faces!" he was ranting. "They didn't know _what_ to do with you!"

"That was the plan," I muttered, examining my cross again out of newly-developed habit. I didn't know what I expected to see in it, other than my reflection, which now looked slightly distorted from the damages of the pendant lying on the road.

And Dark was still mad at me for the loss of his motorcycle. He may look victorious, but by the way he kept his distance from me, I knew he hadn't gotten over his anger. I didn't mind the space, however. _I _still hated _him_ for nearly killing me. I could still picture that car's tired coming at my face, clear as day.

I shivered.

"So, have you gotten any other ideas from that brilliant intuition of yours?" Dark was mocking me. He turned back to me, still half smirking to himself. "_What_ are we _looking_ for, damnit!?"

I sighed, walking right on by him. "I'm getting tired of repeating myself," I told him. "Just go with what impulse tells you," I suggested. "We might find it." Yes, I was getting irritated, too, but I had nothing else to strive for. If whatever it was we were searching for didn't actually exist, I wouldn't mind figuring that out years from now, on the day I die.

"Grand!" Dark bellowed. "Because I have _nothing_ better to do than to follow you to the ends of the Earth!"

"Don't you?" I said, completely aware of how tired me voice sounded.

"Well... no," he grumbled. "Not anymore – but that doesn't mean I _want_ to spend my life with you!" That last statement rose into a shout.

I stopped, but didn't face him.

"In my dreams, you're my worst enemy, and I hate you in reality!" he continued. "But for some reason, I chose you over my own parents! Everything I knew, I gave up for some arbitrary loner! I only _kissed_ you because it was a _game_! I –"

"Stop!" I yelled, and to my surprise he abruptly shut up. I turned back and strode up to him, taking his collar in my fists. He was very close to my face. "I don't care," I snarled quietly. "I don't care what you want, and I don't care what you think – got it? Because maybe _you_ are not the center of the world, Dark. You're not the _only_ frustrated one here."

. . .

The days eventually began to slur into the nights. Dark and I hardly ever even _looked_ at each other, let alone _talked_ to each other. We were simply two animate forms that walked until they were too tired to walk, and slept until their dreams acted up and they began walking again. I didn't remember ever stopping to eat anything, but we must have, because neither of us was dying.

Somehow through our detachment, though, we never got separated; never lost the other.

And through the empty search I began to feel very alone. I got into the habit of sleeping fewer hours than Dark did, reading over again the compilation of Shakespeare that I'd kept with me just for the company of the characters who performed in my mind while I read.

Dark would nudge me awake when he got up, and on most nights I never even remembered falling asleep.

Our routine had become programmed into our minds; so much that it felt almost robotic.

And I still didn't know exactly what it was we were searching for, but it didn't feel like we were getting any closer...


	17. Chapter 16

...16th Part: Dark...

The meaning of time vanished, and I was getting tired of it – the endless walking. Apparently, Krad was too, because one day, he collapsed. He fell to his knees and we had been so distant with each other that I only noticed because I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye.

"I can't do this anymore, Dark," he sighed.

I scowled at him, gripping his arm to try to pull him up. He wouldn't budge. "Oh, come on!" I complained. "You're the one who dragged me into this mess! You can't do this to me, now! What about that thing we're looking for?"

He shook his head. The corners of his mouth tugged upward for a brief second. "What _are_ we looking for, Dark?" he asked.

I think I slapped him, but I wasn't sure. It was an impulse. His head was turned to the side a moment later. "No!" I said fiercely. "Get up."

He turned back to me with hurt and some anger portrayed in his eyes, but he also looked like he had just given up completely.

"_Get up_!" I insisted again. "_You_ can't give up on me! That's not how it _works_!" I didn't know how it _did_ work, but Krad was always the one who told me: 'We'll find it,' 'We'll find it eventually'.

I let go a growl of frustration and knelt down in front of him, wrapping my arms around him, towing him back up with me.

"Fine," I mumbled. "Be that way." And I adjusted, turning to his side to scoop his knees up and carry him. Looking down disdainfully at him, I noticed the side of his face was red from where I had slapped him. Sighing, I told him, "I'm sorry."

"No," he answered, resting his head against my shoulder and laying his hand over the opposite one. "I am."

. . .

I felt like my arms were going to fall off if I didn't put him down soon, but I figured that we would make more progress this way than if I made Krad do his own walking. I could see the buildings of the next city in the distance. It looked like a smaller town, this one, but anything would do at this point. We'd been walking through the middle of nowhere for too long.

Krad had fallen asleep, which helped my debate about making him walk or not to. He didn't have that peaceful look anymore, though. It was almost disappointing.

"Nothing..." he was mumbling. "... wish..."

"What the hell are you talking about..?" I wondered. Shaking my head at him, I focused back on the buildings ahead. We were very close.


	18. Chapter 17

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...17th Part: Krad...

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Dark's face, peering at me with a horrible intensity. I was lying on a couch, I realized, and not suspended in his arms.

"Where are we?" I asked him, looking around.

Dark shrugged. "Who cares? I'm done travelling with you." He stood up from a chair that was positioned close to me, and I came to the conclusion that we were in a hotel somewhere. It was a nice improvement over solid ground. "I just thought I'd let you know that before I left."

I sat up quickly, losing my vision to darkness for a couple seconds, then blinking it back to normal. "What!?"

"I'm leaving you," he repeated, emphasizing each syllable.

A sudden feeling of dread was growing inside of me. "Why?"

"Because I can," Dark said simply. "I don't feel like being around you anymore, so I'm not going to. It's not a complicated concept, Krad. You know that."

"But –"

He shook his head at me, giving me a look that stopped my voice in its tracks. "Don't make any excuses. The only reason we were ever together was because we thought we had to find something. You were the only one of us who completely believed there was really something to find, and when even you gave up, I saw no reason to continue this mindless search. Good-bye, Krad."

And with that said, he left.

I lips parted to call out his name; to make him come back, but no sound came.

. . .

I wandered around the town for a few days, sitting out on the street because I didn't have the knack for stealing that Dark had, and I was out of money. I had no idea how long it had been since Dark and I had run away. It must have been months, but how many exactly, I didn't know – It made no difference to me anymore, anyway.

I had clothes in the backpack that I still carried around with me, but not much else. The food had all been eaten long ago, when we were wandering in the desolate nowheres between cities. I had a lighter that I'd snatched from my house before leaving it for good, I still had my book, and I had the wallet I'd stolen, which contained only some useless plastic cards.

One night, I commenced to picking at the dirt with the driver's license, cutting through the dust and sand and gravel with the relatively sharp edge until I was able to bury it. I buried a card a day after that, simply to keep myself busy with something.

On the fourth day I had only one card left. I examined the edge of it for a while, sliding my finger along it and trying to determine if it would be able to cut through anything other than soil. I got my answer when something crashed somewhere and I jumped, slipping the card haphazardly enough to cut my finger.

I flung the thing to the ground and stuck my finger into my mouth. I tasted both dirt and blood, and neither of them was very pleasant.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on them. I was hungry. I was in pain. I was alone. The thought nearly crossed my mind that I would be better off still living with the frazzle-haired woman, but I quickly dismissed that notion. There was no one I loathed more than her, and she was dead now, anyway.

Oddly enough, Dark was the one I wanted to see right now. Or just have him be here. I didn't care if I saw his face again or not, as long as I just had him next to me again.

My eyes were filling with tears. And the longer I thought about it, the worse it got, until the tears were falling from my face. Silently.

. . .

There was a sound coming from inside the building I was curled up against – a bar, of all places. It was a sound I remembered hearing a long time ago. A laugh. It was distorted greatly, but I still recognized it.

"Dark...?"

I lifted my head off of my knees and looked through the night blankly, pressing my hand and my ear against the brick wall with the hope that I might hear that sound again through it.

I heard his muffled voice.

I couldn't believe it. Dark had never even left this little town, had he? He had lied to me...

Standing up quickly, I almost ran around to the front of the building. I didn't really want to go inside, but as soon as I opened the door and saw who I had been wanting to, I forgot all my unease and walked right to him. I didn't know what to say, so I just stood behind him, staring at him until he noticed me.

It didn't take long.

"Krad!?" he exclaimed in disbelief, nearly falling off of his stool. "What are you doing here!?"

"I was outside," I said. "I heard you and I came to see you."

"I told you, I don't wanna see your face anymore!" He turned and shouted pleasantly for another drink.

"No; you told me you were leaving." I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn't. "Dark...?"

He gulped down more of his disgusting alcohol. "Yeah; what?"

I put my hand over the rim of the glass, blocking it from his lips. "Don't."

Dark shoved at my chest. "Don't _what_? I'm not doing anything wrong." Then he whispered, smirking, "They'll never be able to _catch_ me."

I doubted that.


	19. Chapter 18

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...18th Part: Dark...

The night went on, and the drinking became more of a habit-like impulse that I had developed than just being out for a night to enjoy myself. I didn't really know what I was doing anymore – and Krad was here, which I thought to be weird. It did make sense, though. I had simply failed at avoiding him. It was pathetic, really. I wanted to get away from him, but I couldn't leave the town because I had the feeling that I was going to lose something vital.

I downed another glass of whatever thing I was drinking, nearly falling over backward when I tipped my head back to let it slip down my throat. I managed to catch myself somehow, though – or maybe it wasn't me, but I had no other reasoning for my staying upright.

A strange thought occurred to me. "You know what?" I asked Krad, turning to him and squinting as I tried to focus on his face. "I wonder what you'd look like if you were a girl."

"_What_?" he waved both of his hands in my face – wait; no, only one, but I'd swear I had seen two. "Dark, you are way too drunk..."

I ignored him completely, still considering my inquiry. "I bet you'd be insanely hot," I told him, grinning despite myself. But, damn, that guy was looking gorgeous, suddenly. The last of my sanity was very _gone_. I contemplated unraveling that tie that kept his hair up in a ponytail. I wanted to see it cascade over his shoulders and down his back, like some odd fountain of gold. I vaguely recalled seeing it like that before... a long time ago...

But Krad was glaring at me, so I didn't dare. I looked away again, feigning innocence.

"We should go," he stated in a strange, clipped voice. He grabbed my arm and pulled me up, intent on leading me away.

"Hey, you're not going anywhere until you pay up!" the bartender warned us.

I choked on my laughter. "I don't have any money!" I scoffed. It sounded like the most ridiculous thing in the world to me, paying for things.

"Well then how do you propose to take care of your debts, kid?" the man asked, folding his arms over his chest.

And then, even through my drunken stupor, I caught his eyes crawling over Krad's figure.

For some reason, this put me into a bizarre state of rage. "What're you lookin' at, scumbag?" I demanded, stumbling in front of my unlikely companion. I caught Krad's wrist behind me to steady myself. He shook me off, but I didn't really care. This guy was a total pervert and I wasn't going to have Krad blame me for anything that might happen to him. Even after such a long time spent trying to ditch him, the clearest thing in my head now was that the blond teen was my responsibility.

"You have to pay up somehow, cheapskate!" the bartender argued.

"We'll figure something out, alright!?" I shouted at him, smacking his arm away when he tried to reach across the counter.

"What is there to figure?" he retorted, shoving me to the side. I fell in a heap on the floor and he grabbed Krad by the collar, yanking him closer.

"Remove your hand from my shirt," Krad said darkly. His voice foreboded doom for anyone who actually listened to it.

"No," the ugly man said simply.

My anger built as he leaned his face closer to his. Krad tried vainly to turn away from the violation, prying at the bartender's fist. I stood up from the floor and ran at the man's arm, biting down hard into his nasty, hairy flesh. I cringed in disgust, but kept my face latched on until he released him.

I hadn't seen the beer bottle coming. He smashed it against the back of my skull, and my teeth released him. My face met the floor before I blacked out.

. . .

When I woke up, I was lying on the ground with a jacket tossed over me. There was a blessedly warm fire crackling on my left. Krad was sitting on the opposite side of the flames, just staring into them. He was sitting cross-legged, with his elbows on his knees and his head propped on his folded hands.

We weren't in any town anymore – that much I had figured out.

I groaned from the massive headache that came with being hung-over. "What happened?"

"You got drunk and pissed some people off. You can't fight when you're drunk, Mousy." He didn't take even one glace at me as he spoke.

I glared, but the muscle movement poked at my skull like the tip of a dagger. "Yeah, I remember that much," I retorted, sitting up and watching my vision shroud itself in black and red before going back to how it should be. "But what happened after that?"

"I picked you up and ran," he said bitterly. It was silent for a long while. Then he finally looked up at me. "Why did you do that, Dark?" he asked.

I was puzzled. "Do what?"

"Why did you defend me like that?" he clarified. "You attacked him like some sort of crazed animal."

"I was drunk."

Krad didn't reply. He went right back to staring at the fire.

I wondered what he was thinking about so intently.

"You're gonna burn your eyes if you keep staring like that," I warned him.

"What do you care?" he grumbled.

"I don't!" I said defensively; stupidly. "But I don't want to lead a blind guy around, either."

"I won't damage my eyes," he stated. Krad adjusted his position, unfolding his legs and bringing his knees in close to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. The fire made his golden eyes look glossy. "You didn't really leave," he whispered.

"No, I guess I didn't." I shrugged. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Krad covered his face in his arms. "I don't know."

I hadn't heard that in a while.

Taking a moment to just stare at him for a while, I laid back down and, pulling Krad's jacket tighter around my shoulders, fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 19

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...19th Part: Dark...

We went on, and I gave up on trying to get rid of Krad's company. There was anywhere to go anyway, where we were at, and I had the nagging feeling that I might miss him if I left again. I could tell that Krad was losing sleep over that. He woke up every so often, breathing frantically and then staring at me for a while until he fell back to sleep. I didn't know what it was he dreamt while he was asleep, but I figured by the way he acted some nights that it had something to do with my death. Funny thought, that. He was probably the one who killed me in those dreams, and yet he would wake up in a panic from it.

. . .

One night when I woke, the fire that we usually had going – it was late in the year; we were lucky not to have snow, yet – was out. Not even the embers were still glowing.

I sat up and grabbed a stick to poke at the pile of ash, but my suspicions were confirmed: this fire was dead. Well, it must be time to move on then, I figured.

Getting up, I walked over to Krad to wake him up, too, and when I touched his shoulder, I discovered that was soaked. His hair was tangled and matted from sleeping on it like that, and he was shivering.

Puzzled, I shook him. "Krad, wake up," I urged.

Groaning faintly, he rolled over to squint up at me.

"What happened to you, huh?" I demanded, pulling my shirt off to dry his face and arms.

Krad sat up and batted my hands away. "I fell in a lake," he said irritably.

I stifled a laugh – sort of.

He snatched my shirt from me and threw it at my face. "That's not funny, Dark!" he snapped. "Would you like me to throw _you_ in a lake?"

I thought he was being sarcastic.

"Sure," I laughed. "Why not?"

He wasn't. He was completely serious.

Grinning evilly, he launched himself at me, knocking me over. We grappled with each other on the ground for a while. Eventually, Krad managed to get me bent over his shoulder and stood up, walking away from our crude little camp with an arm wrapped securely around my legs.

I beat at his back. "Let me go!" I shouted. "Krad! Are you listening to me!? I'm going to get you back so bad for this!"

There really was a lake and he was really going to throw me into it. I felt a tug on my legs and before I had time to process what was happening, my back smacked against the water and a moment later, I was drenched.

I scrambled back to the surface, gasping for air. "KRAD!" I shouted angrily, smacking the water with my fists. I had not many words for him. "_Ugh_!"

Krad was laughing at me. "Cold yet, Mousy?" he taunted.

"What do you think!?" I snapped. I was freezing!

When I stood up, the water reached to about my shoulders. I trudged back to the edge of the lake, where Krad was still grinning smugly at me.

I returned the look. "Alright; now help me back out," I said, reaching out to him.

"Oh, no," he refused, holding his hands up, away from me. "I am not falling for that!" He made the mistake of bending over me, however, and his hair fell over his shoulder.

I could reach it. Laughing cunningly, I grabbed a hold of the long gold mess and pulled.

Krad came toppling face-first into the water, but my plan backfired – He landed on top of me.

We both came back up gasping again, and he attacked me, starting a water fight that turned out to be more hilarious than irritating. At one point, I think a little fish even came flying at me.

That was about when I noticed something black stuck to Krad's face. I glanced quickly down at myself and promptly began ripping the same blobbish creatures off of my chest. "GET OUT!" I warned, rushing to the edge of the lake again to haul myself back onto dry land.

Krad followed me with confusion etched into his expression. I snatched the leech off of his face, flinging it to the ground before tearing more from my arms. He caught on suddenly, pulling his shirt off and frantically himself for more of the bloodsuckers. I tripped out of my pants to yank the ones on my legs off and went over to Krad again to help him get the ones on his back. He pulled his jeans off and I knelt down to get them off of his legs while _he_ yanked some from _my_ back.

"There weren't any in there before!" he objected once we were certain we'd gotten them all.

"They don't just pop out of nowhere!" I argued, pitching one of the leeches at a tree, hoping for it to splat against the bark like a water balloon. I was disappointed when it didn't – I missed the tree altogether. "What were you trying to do – kill me!?"

"Well, I didn't get leeches before!" he insisted. "I didn't know! You didn't have to pull me in, either!"

"Payback," I growled, punching him in the shoulder as I passed. "Come on. Let's get some dry clothes on."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OMG yes! I am back! I was in TX for a week and couldn't connect to any wireless where I was. But I finished the story, so BIG update! Enjoy!


	21. Chapter 20

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...20th Part: Krad...

As soon as I pulled on my dry clothes, I went on a search for my jacket. I couldn't find it. And then I remembered that Dark had been wearing it when I'd dumped him into the lake.

I was cold. It didn't help that the fire was out. It also didn't help that Dark had a jacket of his own that I could have thrown over him at night, rather than discarding my own. I couldn't steal his, because he was wearing it.

So I sat on the opposite side of the dead fire from him, flicking the lighter open for the small chance that I might actually get some heat from it. I didn't get much. If Dark's glare was substantial, though, I might've burst into flame. I tried to ignore the look, but it was hard.

"Stop it!" I finally yelled.

"Stop what?" Dark said defensively.

"Stop staring at me like that!" I told him, standing up to tower over him.

Dark scrambled to his feet to meet me at the same level. We were the exact same height if you smoothed down his messy hair and my bangs. "I think I have a good excuse to glare at you!" he shot back. "For one," he went on, "you're the ultimate cause for my bike getting smashed!"

"That was _not_ my fault!" I argued.

"You threw me into a lake _filled _with _bloodsucking leeches_ –!"

"I _didn't know_ about the leeches!"

"You're a _murderer_!" He shouted over my protests. "You're probably trying to kill_ me_, too, _aren't_ you!? I _know_ that's what you _dream _about!"

"Look –" I shouted. "I don't _care_ what may be going on in those ridiculous dreams! I don't want to _hate_ you and I most _certainly_ don't want to _kill _you! Sure, sometimes you can really get on my nerves, but think about how long we've been together!" I grabbed a hold of his shoulders and commenced to shaking him roughly. "People who have been together as long as we have can't truly hate each other like that, can they!?"

I searched his eyes for a while, but found no answers. I didn't think we would _ever _find answers at this rate. How many more months – or_ years_ – would it take to find whatever this thing was that we seemed so bound to?

I shoved him away and stalked off, glaring blindly ahead of me.

Dark caught up to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me around to face him. In the same second, he locked his arm around my back and pulled me against him. His fingers lightly touched my face and his lips were pressed against mine.

I was still stunned when he pulled away to align his violet eyes with my golden ones. "You just _might_ have a point," he grumbled, and kissed me again.

My mind was reeling with thoughts I couldn't understand, and simultaneously, it was completely blank. The only clear thing in my consciousness was confusion, but I found I couldn't argue when Dark's lips moved so encouragingly against mine. Hesitantly, I slipped my arm around his shoulders and began to kiss him back.

We didn't even try to stop kissing each other until we discovered the severe need to breathe, at which point we pulled away from each other, gasping for the air we had lost as if we were drowning in that damned lake again.

"What was _that_?"

Dark was glaring at me again, but the look was different than it had been before. "A kiss, idiot! What else?"

"But _why_?" I clarified.

He threw his hands up in the air. "_I_ don't know!"

I couldn't stop myself. I didn't know why, but I started laughing. I was having hysterics! "You _don't know_?" I echoed. "You weren't _dared_ to again, were you?"

"You know there's no one _around_ to dare me!" Dark protested, then realized how stupid he sounded. He had just kissed me of his own accord – because _he_ wanted to! He crossed his arms over his chest and averted my eyes.

What a turnaround, I thought.

Things might just get interesting from now on.

. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(And this is where I get the 'Romance' part of the genre in. They're gonna get a little fluffier on you guys, so be warned! _(lol) _)


	22. Chapter 21

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...21st Part: Dark...

I kissed him! Why the hell had I kissed him?

I spent all day wondering about this, as we walked on. We found a road, but there wasn't any sign of making it to another patch of civilization anytime soon. I'd give it until the day after tomorrow to come at least over the horizon, this place the road lead to. Man, I wished again I had my motorcycle.

Maybe it was because of the point he'd made, I thought. But even then, the action shouldn't have been so instantaneous. Sudden impulse just... caught hold of me or something. That was the only explanation for it. And there begs the question... Why the impulse?

Krad's words echoed in my head again: _'People who have been together as long as we have can't truly hate each other like that, can they!?'_

And then from the dream, that evil angel's despair: _'Those of us who don't have our own forms... nothing we hope for... nothing we wish for... will ever be granted to us!'_

And then, for some reason, Shakespeare: _'Let me speak a little! This youth that you see here I snatched one half out of the jaws of death, relieved him with such sanctity of love, and to his image, which methought did promise most venerable worth, I did devotion!'_ That one I couldn't understand if I tried.

None of it made sense. Would it ever?

Krad, who walked right at my side, looked to be thinking just as deeply. His eyes squinted slightly in a look that made him seem in pain. "Dark?" He caught my stare.

"It's nothing," I said lamely.

He knocked my arm with the back of his hand. "Of course it's nothing – that's why you look so confused," he said sarcastically. "What is it really?"

I smirked a little. "Do you need a reason for every time I look at you?"

Krad raised one of his blond eyebrows at me. "_Should_ I need one?"

"Nope."

"Alright."

That might have been the most ordinary _and_ most awkward conversations we'd ever had. We walked on in silence after that, hardly saying a single other word for the rest of the day.

. . .

Krad set up the fire for us, as always. "Do you think we'll reach anywhere by tomorrow?" he wondered.

"Day after," I told him my estimate.

"Hmm." He poked at the flames some more once it got going and this time, rather than sitting on the opposite side of the blaze, he came to rest next to me. We still didn't dare touch each other, but we were closer, vicinity-wise.

There was never a time I was this awkward around any of my girlfriends – at least, not that I could remember. I couldn't tell what he was thinking when he looked at me. It was all clouded up by the dreams. The dreams had some kind of a warning hidden in them, but I couldn't decipher it. It was either: 'Don't make the mistake of ending up like this' or the opposite: 'Get him before he gets you'. They both sounded a little skeptic-worthy.

Whatever the case, I was getting a serious headache from all of it.

I felt something fall against my shoulder, then, and when I glanced over to see what it was, the first thing I saw was a mass of blond hair. Krad had fallen asleep and was leaning against me, on the verge of tipping over.

I just gazed at him for a while, contemplating it. When did we stop hating each other – if we ever truly had? And what were we to each other now?

I really needed all the philosophical questions to stop.

Wrapping my arm around Krad's shoulders, I tipped him carefully onto his back before lying down next to him, straightening his sleeve absently until I, too, fell asleep.


	23. Chapter 22

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...22nd Part: Krad...

Dark's soft breath on my face was what woke me up the next morning. The thief actually looked somewhat pleasant when he was sleeping that soundly.

I blinked the thought away, sitting up. His fingers brushed my arm before his hand fell back to the ground near his face.

I brushed some messy violet hair out of his face and nudged his shoulder. "Dark? If you think we're going to find some mass of buildings by tomorrow, you'd better get up."

His hand felt around on the ground for me until he touched my leg, then whacked me weakly, just like any teen searching for their alarm clock to turn it off.

I whacked him back. Not every alarm clock did that, now, did they? The corners of my lips pulled up in a small, awkward sort of smile. "Come on, Mousy. Get up."

"Stop calling me that," he complained.

"Why?" I wondered. He had never rejected the nick-name before this. Hesitantly, I bent down closer to his face. "Gone back to hating me, have you? Even after yesterday?" I prodded at his fingers. "Even after last night?"

"Go away."

"Well, _you're_ bitter today," I noted.

"I have a headache," Dark explained.

"Oh."

Dark slid his bleary eyes open, and with one of those cunning smirks, kissed my lips quick before turning away.

"Stop that!" I objected.

"Stop what?" His voice was muffled by his arm, in which he had buried his face.

I just glared at him until he gave up and sat up to look at me.

"What?" he asked again. "I didn't do anything _wrong_, did I?" He gave me another of those smirks when I didn't answer. "I knew it," he boasted, poking my chest triumphantly. "You _like_ it when I kiss you."

"I do_ not_!" He knew it was a lie. I knew it was a lie – I just didn't want to admit it. He knew that, too.

Dark just grinned.

When we stood to gather up our things and kick about the remains of our camp, he did it again. "Would you _stop_ that, already!" I nearly shouted. "Seriously – you're on the verge of overdoing it."

Dark only laughed, walking ahead of me on our continued journey through the unknown.

. . .

He had been wrong about timing. We were in the next town by sunset, which looked eerie over the old structures. The place didn't look very inhabited, either. There might have been a few people wandering around, but not enough to really call it a population.

I got an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach as soon as we neared the first stone building in the collection. There was something here.

"This is it, isn't it?" Dark whispered. "Kinda creepy..."

"Yes," I agreed. "It is."

"So... what now?" he wondered, laying his hand over my shoulder companionably.

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to figure it out," I suggested. The feeling welling up in me was definitely unease. Now that we had found where whatever we had been searching for was located, I wasn't so sure I wanted to find it.

I had the distinct feeling I would lose something valuable if we reached it; something close to me...

I wrapped my arm around Dark's waist possessively.

"Promise me we'll never be enemies," I said softly.

"We _are_ enemies," he laughed. But his laugh sounded uncertain. He was feeling the same thing I was, I was sure of it. "It'll never get that serious, Krad," he told me, then. "It'll never get as bad as those dreams."

I nodded once. "Never," I agreed.


	24. Chapter 23

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...23rd Part: Dark...

There were none of those alternate-life dreams that night, and it scared me a little. I'd been having them every night, and now that we were here, there were none. I did have other dreams, though. Normal ones – but they obviously weren't the same. A lot of those _almost_-ordinary dreams involved Krad.

During the next day, we resisted searching for the thing we were looking for, staying out of the buildings we walked by and just being together, because of the looming dread we felt. Neither of us wanted to admit it, but we were scared.

We walked side-by-side along the gravel roads, unable to reach out and touch each other, though every now and then we caught each other's glance. Our hands remained in our pockets mostly, but toward the end of the day, we got tired of the isolation and they hung at our sides, our fingers brushing against each other occasionally.

It was an odd turn of events, this sudden attachment to each other. Our argumentative adventure was trying to morph itself into an awkward romance – one, we were thinking, that would end badly.

"Dark," Krad whispered when the sun had gone away again, leaving us in darkness. "I don't think we can avoid it much longer. We have to find it."

"We don't have to find anything," I argued. "Maybe this town is the only thing we need." I gestured around with my arms. "Don't you think we could just give it up, now? I think I've found more than I can grasp," I added, finally slipping my fingers between his, holding his hand in mine.

I stared at the odd link for a while, and so did he. His arm tensed for a moment and I thought he was going to pull away – there was no doubting that he was contemplating it – but didn't.

"But..." his voice trailed off. I don't think he knew what to say.

"We don't _need_ anything more, do we?" I ventured. "Can't _we_ just be enough?"

It all seemed so horribly cliché...

Krad was shaking his head. He pressed his free hand over his stomach and looked back at me. "There's just... that feeling, Dark," he said. "We're missing something."

I laughed a little disdainfully. "Yeah – the only problem is, we still don't know what we're missing."

"I can't help that," he defended himself. "I don't have all the answers."

"Don't you?" I joked sarcastically. "I had no idea."

Krad didn't respond; just looked away.

Sighing, I turned his face toward me again. "Look," I said. "Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll look, okay? We'll turn over every rock until we find the damn thing and then we'll leave it all behind us," I decided.

Krad nodded. "Okay."

Trying to smile reassuringly, I unlatched our hand and pulled him to me, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. He returned the embrace, hooking his arms under mine and laying his hands flat over my shoulder-blades, and he leaned the side of his face against my ear.

"I'm sorry, Dark," he said quietly.

"I'm not," I told him. "You shouldn't be, either. All those fights might've been worth something – who knows?"

Krad laughed slightly, and we held each other tighter. "Do you find this as weird as I do?" he wondered.

I could feel the sad moment drifting away, and I laughed again. "Yeah."

We pulled away from each other for the most part, but our hands had yet to part from his shoulders and my waist. Then Krad, smiling and laughing weakly, wiped something from his face.

"Are you _crying_? Krad – _seriously_?" his other hand retreated to his face and I shook his shoulders a little more violently than I had intended to.

"Of course I'm not," he denied. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"You _are_ crying," I argued, the disbelief evident in my voice.

"No I'm not!" he insisted, wiping his eyes again and looking down at his hands. "It's just... dust..."

"Oh, come on – that's the oldest excuse there is!" I objected.

He sniffed at me, but his small laughter started again. "Well, I couldn't think of anything creative on such short notice."

I shook my head at him, smudging away another tear from his face. "What made you so pathetic?" I wondered.

He shoved at my chest. "I am not pathetic!" But he rethought his answer for a while. "I guess you did," he said. "I blame you – you and your stupid kissing habits."

Smirking, I kissed him right on cue, and ran. We chased each other all through the town, eventually tumbling to the ground in a wrestling match that was... well... fun.


	25. Chapter 24

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...24th Part: Krad...

We stumbled along, laughing and shoving each other about, before we finally chose a huge old museum to stay the night in. The tall, heavy double-doors weren't locked, and when we ventured inside the gothic-era building, we discovered that the only art inside of it was the building itself, complete with gorgeous stained glass windows and haunting gargoyle figures.

"Déjà vu," Dark breathed as we walked through some of the halls.

I nodded silently.

"You'd think there'd at least be some old furniture in here," he added, opening a door to the right and peering inside of it. He came back out, shaking his head.

I shrugged. "I guess you can't be picky when dealing with abandoned buildings," I said skeptically.

Dark walked off behind me to open another door. Unexpectedly, he crept back, swiping me up into his arms with an amused smirk on his face. "But if I dropped you, would you rather land on an old couch or the stone floor?"

"Drop me and you're dead," I retorted, sliding my arm around his shoulders. I didn't really think he would drop me, but I might as well be prepared if he did.

Dark laughed, kicking open a door that he hadn't let close completely and walked across the room before letting go of me. I yelped, gripping his shoulders tighter, but I landed – as Dark had suggested – on an old piece of furniture. It was dusty, but a cushion is a cushion and that's better than bare ground.

I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "Of course you'd be the one to find –" I commented, but he cut off the last of the sentence by leaning over and kissing me, pushing me back and propping his knee on the edge of the one-armed couch-like thing I remembered was called a chaise. I gripped the collar of his jacket, kissing him back for a moment before throwing him off of me. He flopped down on his back beside me, grinning.

"We make a bizarre pair," he said pleasantly, running his finger up the length of my jaw and my face.

I batted his hand away. "You're the craziest of us, though," I told him, giving a small grin of my own.

He brushed y hair into my face, covering my eyes. "Go to sleep," he said.

I pushed my hair back again and rolled onto my side to look at him disapprovingly, catching his hand. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"I," he said grandly, "am the _legendary_ Phantom Thief Dark!"

"Legendary, huh?"

"Yes. Legendary," he repeated, tapping my nose.

I poked his face in retaliation. Both movements were a little odd while our hands were still connected. "Well, the legendary Phantom Thief Dark Mousy should get some sleep, too. Enjoy it," I added. "Who knows what we'll find?"

"Are you worried it'll be the end of the world as we know it?" he teased.

"Aren't you?" I asked. "You're not the least bit worried?"

"No," he said. I wasn't sure whether he was lying or not. "I don't think I am anymore."

"Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?"

He frowned at me. "That's completely out of context," he protested. "I'm not being ignorant... I'm being optimistic."

"Well, I'm afraid your optimism isn't very contagious," I sighed.

He leaned closer to kiss me again briefly and, flashing me another of his smiles, closed his eyes. "Good night, Krad," he said. It wasn't long before he was asleep.

Touching my forehead against his shoulder, I eventually managed to sleep, too.


	26. Chapter 25

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...25th Part: Dark...

I woke to find his cheek, warm and soft, against my shoulder. His fingers were still entangled with mine and his each breath was long and deep and soundless. He looked like he hadn't moved a muscle since falling asleep last night.

I touched his face lightly, stroking the smooth skin.

Krad's eyes blinked open slowly to look at me with still-sleepy eyes. "Dark," he mumbled, yawning and shifting a bit, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"That's me," I said cheerily, earning an amused smile from him.

"Time to look for the whatever-it-is," he told me, curling against my side in opposition to what he suggested.

I laughed, kissing the top of his head – I admit, kissing him proved to be an enjoyable thing. "Now get off of me, Lazy," I said, pushing him away so I could get up.

"Maybe you were right," he thought aloud, yawning again and holding his hand out to me. I pulled him up. "We could just leave it be. Who are we to disturb it?"

"Would you make up your mind, already!?" I shook my head at him, going around to his back and pushing him out into the hall. "You know, if we don't look for it now, you're going to get those weird feelings of yours again and we're going to have it look for it later."

"I'm not the only one who gets 'weird feelings'," he huffed.

"We may not even find it today," I added, ignoring his last comment. "If it is in this building, like we think it is –"

"It is," he interrupted.

"– we still have a lot of rooms to go through. It could take us all week!" I looked back at him over my shoulder, distracting myself from the vast hallway I'd been staring down, and waited for a response.

"Well, if most of this building is empty," he considered, "it might not take as long as you might guess."

"But we still don't know what we're looking for!" I pointed out.

Krad's shoulders drooped a bit. "I think it's something substantial," he said. "Dark, what kinds of things do you dream of frequently?"

I pondered this for a moment. "Uhm... art?"

He nodded, trying to build some kind of conclusion in his head. "What kind of art?"

I shrugged. "_All_ kinds!" What did _I _know about art? As the question crossed my mind, I had the thought that it sounded a little off. "Paintings," I offered something more specific. "And there was a sword – thanks a lot – and... and I don't know! Other random stuff."

"Hmm..." Krad didn't look to be figuring much out.

"What do _you_ dream about?" I wondered.

"Less than you do," he said, sighing. He tossed his hands up briefly. "This building, for one." He went on, "I dream about you."

I snorted. "You dream about me, huh?"

"Killing you."

I nodded. "See, that's what I thought."

A long silence passed, where not even the littlest things shifted. It was practically deafening.

Finally, I grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall. "Well? We gonna look for this thing or not?"

"Still optimistic?" he asked demurely.

"Oh, lighten up," I scolded him. "If we really are marching off to our doom – which I doubt, for the most part – we might as well live it up while we can! There's no use being depressed over the inevitable."

Krad shook his head at me, but I caught the smile that lit his face. "You confuse me, Mousy."


	27. Chapter 26

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...26th Part: Dark...

When we'd searched half the building, we decided to stop, having found nothing yet. Krad was getting irritated, trying to over-examine everything we passed. He probably would have stood in each room for hours if I hadn't pulled him back out.

"How can we find it!?" he shouted suddenly, about halfway through our excursion for the day. "How can we find what we don't know we're looking for!? We could have passed it by already!"

"Krad, calm down!" I shouted over his outburst, shaking his shoulders.

"No! _What _are we not thinking of!?" he insisted.

"Maybe we'll know it when we see it!" I didn't really know, either, but I hated Krad freaking out on me. I didn't really feel like fighting with him anymore.

"But what if –" I cut him off, clamping my hand over his mouth.

"Stop it with the 'what if's, already. Now, come on. Let's keep going..."

. . .

At the end of the day, we retreated back to the room we'd spent the previous night in. I sat down on the chaise, stretching my legs across its length.

"I'll sit on you if you don't move," Krad warned, turning around and looking down at me over his shoulder. "Come on, Dark!" he complained when all I did was raise an eyebrow at him. "Move over!"

Rather than moving, I clasped my hands around his hips. "I'm not moving, no matter what you threaten me with," I told him.

"What about your life?" he tried, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Nope," I refused. "I'm tired." I pulled him down on my lap, then, and he glared at me. I laughed. "You can't be mad at me forever – and like you said, you can't hate me, either."

"Oh, yeah?" he scoffed.

I nodded once, smirking. "Yeah."

Krad still scowled at me, but he decided not to argue it any further. Instead, he got up and grabbed his book.

"How many times have you read that?" I wondered.

He shrugged, coming to sit with me again. "I haven't been keeping track." I moved my legs for him to sit between them, this time, and lean back against my chest. I propped my chin on his shoulder and read with him until I fell asleep.

It didn't take very long.

. . .

I woke again to find Krad still asleep. We were as we had been before: Krad lying against my chest, between my legs, but now his book was lying open on his stomach and my arm was strewn over the book and his hand. And one of my legs had fallen asleep.

Krad woke up sooner than I was expecting. "Artworks," he muttered.

"Yeah, good morning to you, too," I said, confused.

He pushed my arm down to get it off of his book, and I hastily moved it away from him altogether while he straightened his novel's pages. Obviously, he was too distracted to realize how _awkward_ that could have been.

"So _what_ about artworks?" I asked.

"It's an artwork, I'm certain of it – that thing we're looking for," he explained.

I nodded looking skeptically at him. "Yeah, that would make sense. We _are_ in a _museum_, in case you forgot."

"Yes, I know that," he said. "But I also think... it's a _mirror_!"

"Why a mirror?" I wondered.

"Haven't you looked in a mirror inn those dreams?" Krad asked. "Sometimes those kids are on the other side, right?"

"Just the red-head," I said. I wasn't catching on to what Krad was trying to explain.

"Just the opposite for me," he said. "But that's not the important part. We have to look for a mirror of some sort."

"Are you sure?"

"Do you have any _better_ ideas?"

He did have a point. "Well... no..." I wrapped my arms around him tighter for a moment. "But before we go looking again... just stay for a while." I laughed, "Let me kiss on you some more..."

Krad tried halfheartedly to shove me off as I laid kissed all over his face, grappling with him to keep his skin in my reach. "Dark, stop it!" he cried, laughing with me as he turned his face away and shoved at my chest.

He gave up eventually, and I ended up on top of him. His head was nearly hanging off the edge of the furniture; his hair draped down to the floor. I kissed his mouth and he kissed back, stretching his lips with a smile. His hand, which had been pressed flat against my chest, slowly curled into a fist, bunching my collar in his slender fingers. One of his knees drew up closer to his body, so I pulled his leg up over my waist before smoothing my hand back up it to his waist.

"Okay, that's more than enough," he decided, sliding his leg off of me again and wriggling out from under me.

"Oh, come on," I objected, sitting up.

Krad's lips touched mine again for a second before he turned away. "No, Mousy. That's definitely as far as I'll go..." His sentence trailed off, though.

I smirked. For now, I thought, then got up to follow him away.

Time to look for that... mirror...


	28. Chapter 27

_**Children of the Mirror**_

...27th Part: Krad...

Admittedly, I did enjoy Dark's silly shower of attention, but he seemed to be a little more into it than I was comfortable with – not that I couldn't have adapted, but...

I walked through the hall, feeling hot and flustered. Dark followed. He didn't seem too rejected, which made me feel a little less squeamish for it.

But there was something that made my stomach turn in knots. I knew we were getting close to what we were looking for: that mirror, if I was right. I looked around for my reflection in each room. Dark went around brushing dust off of things to help. He kept his mask of optimism on for me, but I could tell by looking into his eyes that he was feeling as nervous about all of this as I was.

In one of the last rooms we chose to examine, we found it.

"Krad!" Dark shouted suddenly. "This is it! Get over here!"

I rushed across the room to him to see what it was he was yelling about. My breath stopped short when I saw what he did: A large oval mirror leaning in a corner of the room. A thick blanket of dust stuck to it, but as Dark brushed it off, coughing and managing to cover his nose and mouth with his shirt, we could finally see the intricate detail that shaped the wide frame. The frame was made of many metals welded together, all rusted or aged into different, beautiful colors. The copper was turned green; there was gold, silver, brass, nickel, and who-knows-what-else mosaicked together and then bent and shaped into broad, wavy leaves and vines, among various other shapes. The pattern was completely without theme, but it was undoubtedly beautiful.

"Wow," Dark said. "Now I _understand _why I steal things."

"Do you?" I couldn't stop staring at it. I half expected to see the young police Commander staring right back, but all I saw was my own profound reflection – and Dark's. I wondered if he expected to see the other kid in front of him; the red-haired one.

"Do you get the same sense of... power... emanating from it as I do?" he wondered.

I nodded, watching him reach out to touch it. "Yes. It seems to be... living..."

"Exactly." Dark's fingers brushed along the grooves of the frame, and he shivered.

I grabbed his hand before I pressed my palm lightly against the glass. For a second, I thought I saw wings spreading from both our reflections' backs. Withdrawing my hand quickly from the mirror, I spun around to look. No wings; not even a single feather.

Dark looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"It's nothing," I muttered.

"I think we should take it back to the other room with us," he suggested. "It's getting late – we can take another look at it in the morning." Letting go of my hand, he picked up the artwork and darted toward the door with it. "Chase me!" he called over his shoulder.

"Dark!" I shouted disapprovingly, running after him. "Get back here!" The term déjà vu crossed my mind again as I followed him through the museum. Now I wanted the wings I'd seen in the mirror. I wanted magic. I wanted to catch him.

. . .

When we got back to the room we now inhabited, Dark propped the large mirror against a wall and shoved his hands into his pockets with an air of satisfaction. "Well," he said, "we found it. Here it is."

I nodded. "Now what?"

Dark shrugged. "Beats me. Let's sleep on it, shall we?" he suggested, smirking at me.

"Last night, Dark," I warned him. "Then we are figuring this out, once and for all. This task is becoming tiresome."

"I agree," he yawned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "So how do you want to do this, this time?" Dark asked, meaning how we'd position ourselves on furniture-for-one.

"Opposite of last night," I told him, catching his yawn and stretching.

He didn't argue. I crawled onto the chaise and he sat down with me, positioning himself between my legs and leaning back against my chest. I draped my arms over his shoulders and pressed my face against his violet hair. Dark patted my knee absently. "In the morning," he promised, "we'll figure _everything_ out."

. . .

Dark seemed to always wake before me, for some reason. When I woke up, he was playing idly with my fingers. "Oh, you're awake," he said, leaning back to look up at me. "You ready to check that thing out? Figure out all its secrets?"

I looked over at the mirror and sighed. "Definitely."

"Alright, then let me up," he laughed, shoving gently at my leg, which was bent over the top of his.

"Oh."

We both removed ourselves from the chaise and walked straight over to the mirror to examine it again. It looked the same as it did last night. It was the same metal, the same glass.

But something else, I noticed, was different. I no longer felt that same dread or anxiety, but an overwhelming... normality. I couldn't remember a time anymore when my emotions weren't out-of-this-world, but now there was this odd lack of anything. Just calmness; the equivalent feeling of a shrug. It left my mind clearer, I think, than it had ever been.

Dark noticed it, too.

I remembered what I'd seen when I touched the glass of the mirror. "Dark, put your hand against it – the reflective part, not the frame."

"Okay..." As soon as his hand touched it, he was backing away again. "Whoa..."

"What did you see?" I wondered.

"Magic." He grinned. "It was glowing in your hands, and mine. Yours was gold-colored," he informed me. He looked as fascinated by this as he had by the simple mirror as we'd first come across it.

"Last night, I saw wings," I told him.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, to stand next to him in front of the mirror. "At the same time," he whispered.

We both reached out, pressing our hands against the reflective surface. I saw the magic that Dark had seen. I saw feathers. And suddenly it was all obliterated by a sudden burst of white light, like an explosion, and Dark was pulling me back from it, tripping and falling to the ground, taking me with him.

We watched as the glaring white light swirled and turned black – although how light could be black, I couldn't comprehend. The blackness moved out over the frame and stuck to the edge of it like flames, while the white seeped out around the edge of the reflected image.

Dark and I looked at each other, then back at the mirror.

"What was _that_?" he breathed.

I shook my head, amazed. "I... I don't know..."

He wrapped his arms around me, and I returned the embrace. We simply sat there together, watching the light and shadow flicker about.

Dark reached out to it again.

"Don't –"

When his finger touched the glass, the image rippled like water. He pulled his hand away again and looked at me seriously. "We have to go through it," he said.

"_What_!?" He couldn't really be suggesting we walk through a mirror!

"Come on," he insisted, standing up and pulling me up with him.

"I'm not going through that!" I protested. "Are you completely crazy!?"

"Maybe I am," he said, "but _this_ is how we're going to get answers – it has to be!"

"It does not have to be! This is ludicrous!" I almost shouted.

"You're scared," Dark guessed. It was more of a statement than a guess, though. He gave my hand a squeeze. "Don't be."

"I'm not –"

His look told me it was useless to argue. "I'll tell you a secret," he said, leaning in toward my ear. "...I'm scared, too. But I'm also curious; aren't you?"

"Well... yes..."

Dark kissed my face. "Then let's go."

A phrase entered my mind, then, and I couldn't stop myself from saying it. "Those of us who don't have our own forms..." I said. "Nothing we hope for... nothing we wish for... will ever be granted to us..."

"Are you ready for the end of the world?" Dark asked softly, smirking. I hoped he was only joking.

I nodded, gripping his hand with an intensity that probably could have broken it, but he didn't complain. He pressed his hand against our reflection and the glass rippled again – it couldn't have really been glass anymore. His arm disappeared up to his elbow, and then he took a deep breath and stepped one foot into it. He was going in it, pulling me with him.

"Dark – wait!"

I had to say –

"I –"


	29. Epilogue

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_**Children of the Mirror**_

And all that they know... vanished.

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	30. EXTRAS

**!EXTRAS!**

Wow! Another one is finished! Impressive, if I do say so myself. I've finished more stories in the last three months than I have in my whole lifetime! And thanks again, Reviewers!

I don't remember which stories I put disclaimers on and which I didn't, and which were seriously typoed so here it is, quick: _D. or any of its contents_ belong NOT to me, but to Yukiru Sugisaki. The _storylines_, however, ARE completely mine.

_**If**__**you would like a **__**sequel**__** to this story, tell me! I have an idea, but I want your **__**vote**__**, first! Thanks!**_

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_**Children of the Mirror**_**: Evaluations/Explanations**

. . .

Truth or Dare

I brainstormed somewhere in the middle of the story first, so I had to figure out how to begin the story. Finding no other brilliant ideas in my head, I went for the somewhat-classic 'Truth-or-Dare' thing to get the two to notice each other.

. . .

Leeches in the Lake

This idea, I plucked from the movie _Stand by Me_, so if you've ever watched that and were thinking: 'Hey, that sounds familiar' – yeah, that's where I got the idea from. I thought it was funny, and I needed an event to get Dark and Krad to work together again for a minute. (Stand by Me also is one of the things that inspired my story in general. I wanted Krad and Dark to go on some long adventure. And I just... _(shrug)_ went from there...)

. . .

Dreams

These were the basis of my story. It was what got them out of town and what kept them motivated, if not totally confused and a little paranoid. I only wrote out some of Dark's dreams mainly because I hadn't a clue what to say for Krad. Mostly, he was out to get Dark and Daisuke ('the red-haired kid') and there wasn't much else to it, except for maybe arguing with Satoshi or something. The quote: 'Those of us who don't have our own forms... nothing we hope for... nothing we wish for... will ever be granted to us!' was said by Krad in _D._ volume 8. It was a clue (sort of) to the hopelessly bad ending. If I write a sequel, the phrase will probably make a little more sense.

. . .

Lost Cross/Dark's Motorcycle

I decided that even though I had the two of them start out riding Dark's motorcycle, it would be a little less adventurous if all they had to do to find their destination was drive at 70-or-so mph all the way. So then I thought: 'Here's an idea – let's _crash_ the motorcycle!' With my sinister plot in mind, I began brainstorming different ways to do it. First, I thought of having it get trashed somewhere during the bar scene (which was one of the first things I wrote before planning the rest of the story – terrible, I know), and then I contemplated having someone run into them or drive them off the road or something, but that would've included getting them in and out of the hospital. I didn't want to write all that (because I would've gotten bored), so I decided finally that the best idea was for Krad to lose his cross. They'd get distracted and leave the bike, at which point it would get smashed. (It was fun writing Dark's reaction, too.)

. . .

Shakespeare/'Disturbance'

Krad's Shakespeare book... well... I don't have an explanation for it, really, except for that our school play this year happens to be Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_. I thought it would be hilarious – and original – to have Krad belting out some of Antonio's lines to the police to help Dark escape. In the play, Antonio is getting arrested at that point. Clever, I thought. Anyway, this bit was mostly random, and I figured I had to give Krad _something_ to do with his spare time, other than cleaning up after his false mother.

. . .

Dark and Krad's Parents, and the Alternate World

The Alternate World in which this story takes place is _within_ the Black Wings, for those of you who were wondering. The artwork is a world in itself, made up for Dark and Krad to live in – even though the creation wasn't all that pleasant for them (especially Krad). Dark, I decided, would have both of his parents, and even though they were a lot stranger than Emiko or Kosuke would have ever been, he still had a family that worked. I didn't spend a whole lot of time developing them, because they weren't all that important to the storyline. Krad had to have the horrible life scenario so that he could still be somewhat in character (being the homicidal blond, y'know). I think that's pretty much it...

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If there's any other explanations you need or want – just ask! And don't forget to vote Yes or No for a _Children of the Mirror_ sequel!


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